Beer – #244 – Rogue – Yellow Snow IPA – a Redux

so to quote Eminem it’s back to reality …… with a bump – and I retreat to a Rogue Yellow Snow IPA. Never ever eat yellow snow, they said…. Brewed by Rogue Ales in the style of an India Pale Ale (IPA) and that is all the thing in Newport, Oregon USA.

355ml of a 6.25 ABV beer, making it 1.7 standard drinks in kiwi land.

Pale golden in color with a hoppy fruity aroma. Big hop flavor up front complemented by medium body and hoppyness mid-pallet. Finishes with a characteristic lingering bitterness. and this rolls in at 70 IBU slap in the middle of the IPA range, and almost as many ingredients as dwarves Cara Foam, Melanoiden & Great Western 2-Row Malts; Amarillo & Perle Hops, Free Range Coastal Water & Pacman Yeast.

Ah, the familiar hoppy grass aroma, orange golden pour and a bracingly good head, is that 3 in a row? Delicate grassiness dominates and has a really long finish, almost one dimension. But then you take some more and there are some floral notes and a bit of a carnival going on underneath. Very clever.

And then…. I realised I had this before, in a bigger bottle almost a year ago. Wherein I described it as a bit one dimensional. Howzat!! And looking back I was chubbier and less less expressive.

Has it, or my taste, changed in the intervening months? Because I write as I drink clearly not. or not. I get a few more things going on under the hopiness note, but I still think that this is a bit of a one trick pony. I also don’t think it’s impressively bitter.

What I do think however is that this is a jolly good beer that you could drink a fair bit of, quickly and easily, there is nothing to prevent you from drinking this or thinking that it’d bore you or challenge you to enjoy it, it just a daily nice middle of the road beer.

The pdubyah-o-meter has no problems with a review of the 8 and thinks that this would be “generous” given my current thinking and change of the way that I enjoy or appreciate beer. So I mark this to 7 still being better than good but not outstanding.

Hey if this was on tap at the local then I’d be in boots and all, in like Flynn, off like a robbers dog and all that. It’s nice to have something that is this pleasant and rewarding.

Having said that though, this is still good coins for a beer that is just “good” and it’s a big pool you’re swimming in with a straight IPA. There are better, but then you might have wandered away from middle-of-the-road good-to-drink into challenge-me, which might not be where you want to be, at this time of night and at this moment. As I am now.

He said, scratching his head as to why he’s finished this and has to find another thing to drink.